2026 Universalist Convocation
May 15 – 17, 2026, Clayton Memorial UU Church, Newberry, SC
“Since 1990, our yearly Convocation has gathered people who wish to learn, explore, and celebrate our Universalist heritage. This year’s Convocation will be our last scheduled in-person gathering. We encourage all who have joined us before or wish to experience the fellowship of attending a Convention to join us this year.”
See the full announcement: https://universalistconvocation.org/announcement/
Walking a path of peace through these dark and broken roads requires much more of us than warm, fuzzy feelings. To walk such a path through a world that is anything but peaceful, means prioritizing how each of us cultivates our internal landscape first and foremost. It all starts and ends with this <point to heart>. And it requires grit. Awareness. Resilience.
— Mo Myokan Weinhardt, “Stop the war”, a dharma talk at Empty Moon Zen, April 4, 2026.
We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
On Sunday, 26 April, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “Stop the War”, by Mo Myokan Weinhardt, a dharma talk at Empty Moon Zen, published in James Ford, “STOP THE WAR: Commenting on a Zen koan”, Monkey Mind: Easily Distracted (April 17, 2026)
The article, “STOP THE WAR: Commenting on a Zen koan”, by James Ford, can be found here.
Please Join us for Worship.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Google Meet and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including Google Meet participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using Google Meet.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Children are welcome.
The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
We are discontinuing ZOOM and changing to Google Meet.
If you have questions or concerns, or would like us to send you the Meet link, please contact us at westforkuu@gmail.com
Newspaper editorials deplore such human-caused degradations of the oceans as the Gulf of Mexico’s “dead zone,” and reporters describe practices like “mountain removal” mining in eastern Kentucky. Some day we may finally understand the connections.
The health of the oceans depends on the health of rivers; the health of rivers depends on the health of small streams; the health of small streams depends on the health of their watersheds. The health of the water is exactly the same as the health of the land; the health of small places is exactly the same as the health of large places. As we know, disease is hard to confine. Because natural law is in force everywhere, infections move.
We cannot immunize the continents and the oceans against our contempt for small places and small streams. Small destructions add up, and finally they are understood collectively as large destructions.
— Wendell Berry, “Contempt for Small Places”, The Way of Ignorance, and Other Essays, 2005
We have Spiritual Outings on the first Sunday of each month through the summer (very loosely defined), but this month it will be on the third Sunday. For this year’s April outing, we will gather on 19 April at Pringle Tree Park for a celebration of Autumn, the joys of nature, the oddities of history, and the challenges of fellowship. Come join us on the banks of the Buckhannon River.
We will meet at 11 a.m. in the picnic area for a short service followed by a potluck picnic, conversation, and walking — look for the WFUU banner. Bring food to share if you are able and wish to share; otherwise, just bring food for yourself and share our company. In the event of rain we will probably get wet; in the event of clear sky we will probably get hot — bring weather-appropriate clothing.
We would love to have you come worship and eat with us.
Note that ZOOM will not be available for this service.
This link will take you to a map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Tb4jxf44wFXrwyq3A
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or to carpool, or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Despite my inherent scepticism in all forms of supernaturalist religion, I still find the example of the human Jesus central to my own spirituality and religious outlook, and his Sermon on the Mount and/or the Sermon on the Plain still seem to me to present a set of ethical teachings that are worthy of my continued loyalty. That is why at Christmas I continue to celebrate his traditional birthday. However, I will admit that the fact such a teacher was executed for these kinds of teachings remains a great disappointment to me.
However, in my experience, this disappointment — along with many others connected with the teachings of traditional Christianity — caused me to think hard — that is to say philosophise — about my inherited beliefs. And the wonder is that this disappointment eventually turned to a philosophy of wonder.
— Andrew James Brown, “A philosophy of wonder born of an ancient disappointment”, CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints (December 27, 2025)
We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
On Sunday, 12 April, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “A philosophy of wonder born of an ancient disappointment”, by Andrew James Brown, CAUTE — Making Footprints Not Blueprints (December 27, 2025)
The article, “A philosophy of wonder born of an ancient disappointment”, by Andrew James Brown, can be found here.
Please Join us for Worship.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Children are welcome.
The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Please bring flowers to share in the service. Whatever is blooming, or a twig in bud, is fine.
We will have our Flower Ceremony, which was created by Dr. Norbert Čapek for the Liberal Religious Fellowship he founded in Prague, then Czechoslovakia, in 1925, and which became the largest Unitarian Church in the world. He sought a ceremony that would celebrate love and community and the interdependent web of life and love among a new and diverse congregation drawn from many backgrounds, and which would be a celebration not tied to any older religious ceremonies, which many of his congregation had rejected. Nearly a hundred years later, it is celebrated by many Unitarian Universalist congregations everywhere.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Children are welcome.
The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.
The schedule for the current adult religious education class is here.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
It seems at times as if America is a “twilight kingdom,” in the words of T. S. Eliot, in “this valley of dying stars.” Too many people are living fragmented lives: “Shape without form, shade without colour.”
What we lack, in a single word, is shalom. I think shalom is among the most beautiful words in the Bible. In the New Testament, which was written in Greek rather than Hebrew, the word used is eirene. Shalom is often translated into English as “peace,” which many people take to mean the absence of conflict. But its fuller meaning is something closer to human flourishing.
— Peter Wehner, “A Word for Our Troubled Times”, The Atlantic (March 8, 2026).
We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
On Sunday, 29 March, we will open with a very brief service and chalice lighting, followed by our discussion. Robert Helfer will lead the service and discussion. This week’s reading is “A Word for Our Troubled Times”, by Peter Wehner, The Atlantic (March 8, 2026).
The article, “A Word for Our Troubled Times”, by Peter Wehner, can be found here. This is a gift article — no subscription is needed.
Please Join us for Worship.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Children are welcome.
The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
There will be no in-person or Zoom service on Sunday, 22 March 2026. We are offering a reading suggestion for those who are interested
We, as progressives, rightly criticize the version of belonging that is being offered. But sometimes we forget that all the right ideas and plans won’t make you feel less alone. We need to build a culture and an experience that can and does.
People don’t want to be convinced, they want to feel claimed by a “we” that doesn’t dissolve who they are but magnifies it in a shared power.
— Sean Neil-Barron, “A Theology of Community Organizing”, UUWorld, 2/10/2026
We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
On Sunday, 22 March, there will be no in-person or ZOOM service. Although we will not be meeting either in person or on Zoom this Sunday, we are offering this reading for those who would like to participate in our weekly readings.
The article, “A Theology of Community Organizing”, by Sean Neil-Barron, can be found here.
Please Join us for Worship.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Children are welcome.
The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
Please consult current posts for readings and other news.
There will be no in-person or Zoom service on Sunday, 15 March 2026. We are offering a reading suggestion for those who are interested
Because the Bible isn’t ever just one thing. In the wrong hands, it has been – and continues to be – a weapon. But in hands committed to courageous love, it can become a transformative tool..
— Rev. Gretchen Haley, “Swords into Plowshares, Weapons into Tools”, Another Possibility: A Unitarian Universalist Blog, Posted on February 9, 2026
We currently conduct a full worship service on the first Sunday of each month, and discuss a different short reading each of the remaining Sundays.
Although we will not be meeting either in person or on Zoom on Sunday, 15 March 2026, we are offering this reading for those who would like to participate in our weekly readings. This week’s reading is “Swords into Plowshares, Weapons into Tools”, by Rev. Gretchen Haley, Another Possibility: A Unitarian Universalist Blog, February 9, 2026
The article, “Swords into Plowshares, Weapons into Tools”, by Rev. Gretchen Haley, can be found here.
Please Join us for Worship.
Our services are Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Eastern Time on ZOOM and in person at the Progressive Women’s Association Event Center, 305 Washington Ave. in downtown Clarksburg, behind the Courthouse. A coffee hour, a time for discussion and socializing (including ZOOM participants), follows from the end of the service until 12:00 noon. More about us.
If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate online, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.
We would love to have you come worship with us.
Children are welcome.
The building is wheelchair accessible, with an accessible restroom. You may park on the south side of the building, which is marked reserved for the PWA, or the north, where the reserved spaces are available on Sundays.
Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302
West Fork Unitarian Universalists 